The Oscar-winning actor was onstage with former Eagles rock star Glenn Frey at their children’s school when they were joined by another parent sporting a leopard print costume, a blackened face and an afro wig.

Hanks yesterday apologised over the “hideously offensive” scene, claiming he was “blindsided” during the incident, which was captured on video by a shocked guest at the event.

The two-minute clip shows Hanks hosting the castaway-themed auction in a room decorated to look like a jungle at the £18,000-a-year St Matthew’s Parish School in Pacific Palisades, California.

As the blacked-up man takes the stage, Hanks quips that the Right-wing US commentator Bill O’Reilly, who has himself often been accused of racial insensitivity, has arrived.

“A celebrity in our midst – who would have thought Bill O’Reilly would join us?” says the actor.

Co-host Frey jokes: “This is as close to diversity as we’ll get at St Matthew’s.”

Frey identifies the blacked-up man as investment banker James Montgomery, saying: “Just back from a Jerry Falwell sensitivity training seminar.

“All I know is, this school is so conservative that Jamie Montgomery was almost not allowed in. They stuck him in the parking lot — they let him in. These are the jokes, people.

“Remember, Jamie Montgomery — he handled the Idi Amin account back in the ’80s, which was good.”

The footage, shot in March 2004, was given to U.S. website The Daily Callerby a woman who filmed the event and accused Hanks of hypocrisy.

The woman said: “Tom would be the first to scream ‘racist’ if a conservative put their arm around a Wall Street banker in black face while their co-MC made racist remarks.”

Responding to the controversy, Hanks told Hollywood news website The Wrap: “In 2004, I was blindsided when one of the parents got up on the stage in a costume that was hideously offensive then and is hideously offensive now.

“What is usually a night of food and drink for a good cause was, regrettably, marred by an appalling few moments.”

Hanks, who starred in the 2000 Hollywood film Castaway, recently narrated a 17-minute campaign video calling for President Barack Obama’s re-election.

In response to the auction video, Niger Innis, of the Congress of Racial Equality, said: “I call upon President Obama, who has Tom Hanks doing the narration to his campaign video, to cease, to remove Mr Hanks’ voice-over from his video, and end any association or affiliation with Mr Hanks,”

“It is gross, it’s coarse, and it is shocking that something like this would be done in California. Not Mississippi — in California.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/cele...ed-up-man.html
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While liberals complain about "dog whistle racism" on the part of conservatives, which only they can hear, Tom Hanks hosts a minstrel show in the middle of that bastion of progressive thought, Los Angeles. The spirit of that great progressive and bigot, Woodrow Wilson, lives on.

03-25-2012, 12:19 AM

Rockntractor

Tsk tsk, all is not happy in paradise!

03-25-2012, 12:29 PM

Bailey

Serves him right.

03-25-2012, 12:33 PM

AmPat

Quote:

“It is gross, it’s coarse, and it is shocking that something like this would be done in California. Not Mississippi — in California.”

These are the kind of comments that fire me up. As though there is no racism in Kalifornia. No racism anywhere except the South (or in Conservative circles). How convenient of these morons to forget the riots in the North over forced bussing.

03-25-2012, 01:00 PM

Novaheart

The time has come.

03-25-2012, 01:01 PM

SaintLouieWoman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bailey

Serves him right.

Amen. He has that Hollywood sense of entitlement and arrogance---and hypocrisy.

For a while I worked for a huge corporation that talked the talk, but sure didn't walk that walk about diversity. One of the minority sales reps told me some real horror stories about his experience with them. All is not as it seems in so many areas. There's nothing like liberal hypocrisy.

03-25-2012, 01:15 PM

Novaheart

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintLouieWoman

For a while I worked for a huge corporation that talked the talk, but sure didn't walk that walk about diversity....

Truth! I worked for a major US bank. The workplace rules which travelled under the banner of Diversity (capital d) were supposed to make it a respectful workplace. They made it a hostile workplace where some people simply refused to speak unless it was absolutely essential, and others walked around whispering to each other. After several years, I noticed that there were virtually no white males left working there because they had had enough of the bullshit and being passed over for promotions. Out of 1500 employees, I'd say there were 50 or less white males. I'd rather do lawns and trees than work there.

03-25-2012, 01:29 PM

SaintLouieWoman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Novaheart

Truth! I worked for a major US bank. The workplace rules which travelled under the banner of Diversity (capital d) were supposed to make it a respectful workplace. They made it a hostile workplace where some people simply refused to speak unless it was absolutely essential, and others walked around whispering to each other. After several years, I noticed that there were virtually no white males left working there because they had had enough of the bullshit and being passed over for promotions. Out of 1500 employees, I'd say there were 50 or less white males. I'd rather do lawns and trees than work there.

At my major corp (I quit there after 2 years, couldn't stand it) one of the white sales reps who had been there for over 20 years kept being passed over for promotions). He did a good job and was well liked by his clients. He finally quit and took a job that didn't work out well for him. He hung himself after leaving a message that there was "no life after X". The corp could afford to hire a grief counselor for the remaining employees. It was at that point that I concluded that I was returning to my previous employer, where I stayed for 22 years.

03-25-2012, 02:10 PM

NJCardFan

Of course this is the same Hollywood set that allowed Ted Danson to show up at Whoopie Goldberg's(whom Danson was dating at the time) birthday party in black face with nary a peep(except fr Goldberg who ended the relationship over it). Oh, and this thing, what was Hanks' reaction? A Bill O'Reilly joke. And to think conservatives are the intolerant ones.

03-25-2012, 04:04 PM

Elspeth

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmPat

These are the kind of comments that fire me up. As though there is no racism in Kalifornia. No racism anywhere except the South (or in Conservative circles). How convenient of these morons to forget the riots in the North over forced bussing.